Monthly Archives: February 2010

Hotel treadmill redux

Start time: 2/28/10, 1:30pm
Location: LAX Marriott Treadmill
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 8:53min/mile
Total Miles For February: 51 miles
Total Miles For 2010: 119 miles

Hey, guess what happens when you actually start running regularly again? It gets slightly easier. Funny thing, that. About halfway through the run I realized it was feeling a little too easy and I started turning the pace up a bit. It was nice for everything to still be comfortable. Now if I can just keep my nose to the grindstone, maybe… just maybe…?

Beach!

Start time: 2/26/10, 7:30am
Location: Venice Beach, Santa Monica Beach
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 9:36min/mile
Total Miles For February: 46 miles
Total Miles For 2010: 114 miles

Well, after all of these trips out to the west coast, I finally go to do (to me) an iconic run: along the beach. I should clarify, though; I was running on a concrete strip that runs along the beach itself, not on top of shifting sands (which is bad). But I started at Venice Beach and ran north for a while before turning around and heading back. It was a pleasant run, especially since on the way back when I was on a sort of a Boardwalk-type of stretch that all the vendors had started to set up their merchandise and such.

I also had to recognize while I was out there that I am woefully underprepared for March’s half-marathon, and realistically I am going to give up any sort of PR goals. Which was a bad discovery to make, but also better to decide it now than the day of the race.

Hotel treadmill

Start time: 2/25/10, 7:00am
Location: LAX Marriott Treadmill
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 9:05min/mile
Total Miles For February: 36 miles
Total Miles For 2010: 104 miles

Just some running on the hotel treadmill. I’m not a big fan of the treadmill in general and I started off slow and then ramped it up a bit. Still not terribly fast, but after missing Tuesday’s run due to work and needing to pack, I won’t deny that I was feeling a little rusty.

Still the Arctic tundra

Start time: 2/20/10, 8:00am
Location: Hains Point, National Mall
Distance: 9 miles
Average pace: 10:49min/mile
Total Miles For February: 31 miles
Total Miles For 2010: 99 miles

Went for another run with the group this morning; the first three miles, on Hains Point, were great. They’ve plowed out the entire area now, and aside from the occasional tiny patch of ice and/or packed snow it was clear and easy, and we had a good pace going. The other six miles, though… well, Not So Good. A lot of ice-dodging and having to stop and walk over entire stretches. Most of DC’s sidewalks still aren’t ready, or at least they were once ready but then the melting-and-refreezing cycle messed them up. *sigh* Ah well. We got forced to slow down a great deal but at least we got the distance in (and the company was great).

I’m missing next week’s run, so I’m hoping in two weeks when I run with them again it will be a radically different landscape. (Please?)

Sleepy

Start time: 2/18/10, 6:45am
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 9:04min/mile
Total Miles For February: 22 miles
Total Miles For 2010: 90 miles

More indoor track running. Um… yay? It was a good thing to have done; with a race a month away I really need to get my butt back in gear. But I am super-sleepy now. Cannot stop yawning.

(9:07, 9:01, 9:11, 9:00, 8:59)

Indoor Track Fun

Start time: 2/17/10, 6:45am
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 9:02min/mile
Total Miles For February: 17 miles
Total Miles For 2010: 85 miles

In a non-shock of the century, still no significant melting going on outside. Right now my regular running routes are completely impassable; when they completely cleared 10th Street in Arlington, they did so by shoveling all the snow off of the road and onto the shoulders… which includes the sidewalks. It’s fairly insane as a result, and other streets are in just as bad a condition. So unless I want to run down main roads and risk my life… guess it’s time for more indoor track fun. (At least that option is available.) I also noticed that the parking lot was more full than normal despite there not being more people at the rec center; I think people in the local neighborhood are parking there rather than on the street. What this probably means is that going to spinning class tonight might be problematic. We shall see.

Anyway! The run went ok. Sure it was boring (thank you “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” for this morning’s entertainment) and I was huffing and puffing from a general lack of running as of late, but I got it done and that’s all that really mattered to me.

(9:11, 8:52, 8:59, 9:09, 8:55)

This is a pathetic February

Start time: 2/13/10, 9:30am
Location: Hains Point
Distance: 6 miles
Average pace: 10:00min/mile
Total Miles For February: 12 miles
Total Miles For 2010: 80 miles

Almost forgot to update with last Saturday’s run; with all of the snow and all (which also resulted in the rec center being closed), I haven’t had much to report! We did try and go for a run on Hains Point on Saturday, though. Turns out Park Services plowed about 85% of the road but didn’t make it (on either side) all the way to the point itself. So we got to run down one side… then back… then down the other side… then back… then a little bit more on the first side… then back. Bleah. All the cold air coming off of the snow actually ended up really hurting my lungs, too; even the next morning they were sore.

The only bright side is that everyone else in the group (Ben, Jim, Michael, Stephanie, Steve) had been forced to sit on their butt up through the previous week and a half as well, so at least we were all in the same boat. I think we all agreed it was one of the tougher 6-milers we’d ever done. Yeesh.

Boo for snow

Start time: 2/4/10, 5:45pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 6 miles
Average pace: 10:23min/mile
Total Miles For February: 6 miles
Total Miles For 2010: 74 miles

Phew! Taking 11 days off from running always results in some ugliness when it’s time for me to start back up. In this case, it was resting one of my feet, which had been hurting on and off since the Disney races. A combination of relacing my shoes (to not have so much pressure along the top of it) and the time off did the trick, at least; not a single ache or pain. And I was doing my best to try and stay active since last running on the 23rd; a combination of rowing machine, swimming, elliptical, and spinning classes for 9 of the 11 days off. But still, oof.

Of course, it probably didn’t help matters that my run was on the slightly-snow-clogged W&OD Trail. I was hoping more of it would have freed up by now, but there was never more than a half-mile stretch before it would inevitably be full of snow for a bit. I should have just done my run in my neighborhood instead… ah well. All that slowing down to avoid face-planting and careful footwork somehow ends up being more tiring than one would think. That and just having my running muscles out of shape meant this was inevitable. Still, with more snow en route (aaarrrrggghhh), it was one of those “now or never” sort of things.